Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Ladies and gentlemen, boys, and girls of all ages. Welcome to the most amazing interview show on the information. Super highway. Now zooming to you live and simultaneously from two secret studio bunkers in dual time zones located somewhere South of Alaska, East of area 51 North of Guantanamo. And if we give you one more clue, we'll all be in deep trouble. It's the amazing twin namesake separated at birth. The two most famous guys, not in witness protection. It's coffee with Jim and James.
Speaker 1 00:00:37 Good morning, LinkedIn community. Welcome to another fine episode of coffee with Jim and James. Wait a minute. Before we get started, where's my shovel. Where's my backhoe. I have Palm trees to plant. I have fences to put in, but the most important tool I need before I get started is this my cell phone, because why, who am I going to call? No, it's not Ghostbusters. It's eight one one always call eight one one before you dig. And that's a great intro into our exciting ups. So today, but before I do that, my brother in arms, the person that picks me up every morning, Mr. James Cross is here, sir, James, how are you? This fine and beautiful morning.
Speaker 1 00:01:20 It is hot here in Texas. I don't know. I don't know how warm it is. I know you live in Florida. You didn't run out to the beach, get in the water, man. You are absolutely very hot. Well, I kind of took the cards. Tina Sanders is joining us, uh, with Texas and damage prevention council of Texas. I won't, I won't get into all the titles and special accolades that she has, but I'll let her do that because I'll screw it up. So, Tina, how are you today and tell our viewers a little bit about, um, how you're involved with Texas damage prevention council. Well, sure. I want, first of all, I want to thank both of you for inviting me on today. Uh, I am Tina Sanders. I am the damage prevention manager for the Northeast Texas region. Um, I work for Texas eight one one, uh, is the call before you dig know what's below and thank you very much, Jim, for making sure that your mind, everybody, that the very most important tool that you can have at the very beginning of projects is that, uh, that, that phone to place the call.
Speaker 1 00:02:33 That's right. Um, so now I also work with the damage prevention, uh, council of Texas. Uh, I am on the board, uh, for the day for the DPC of Texas. We have 23, um, regional chapters. And so that is kind of one to let you know who I am and what I'm here to talk about today. No, that's interesting. Let me, let me jump in. I, you know, I always have those wacky intros and James puts up with me, his heart, I'll say that, but, uh, you know, being serious eight one, one is such a, uh, an imperative part to not only being a homeowner, but really what we do in life, in the energy industry. We're putting things in the ground and we need know what's there. Can you give us a little insight into the one-call process, uh, from both your side as well as, you know, the consumer side or the contractor side?
Speaker 2 00:03:24 Sure. So, um, so Texas eight one one is the one call notification center for Texas. Um, we are the link between the excavators, um, proposed, uh, construction, uh, proposed excavation site. There are plans to excavate and us reaching out to the utility operators and notifying them that an excavation project is fixing to take place. So the excavator would make the eight one, one call or submit a ticket through the portal. And we would do the mapping that is provided. We would be able to pull up the utility operators that have underground utilities in the area, push a notification, sent a ticket out to them, and then they would be able to respond either with their in-house locators, our third-party locator to go out and Mark a proposed excavation site. So that's just kind of a real quick synopsis as far as what the, what the front side of the one called process is.
Speaker 1 00:04:23 Okay, cool. Um, we've w for lack of a better word, we shared the stage a few times at different events. And so I've been blessed that you're you speak on, on, um, Texas at one and various initiatives going on some of the terminology that is used in our industry, maybe some people, especially more in particular to, uh, damage prevention. Uh, some of our people may not be 100%, um, you know, aware of some of those terms. So things like white lining and potholing, daylighting, things like that. Um, can you just give us a high level view of what that looks like and define those terms and everything for us?
Speaker 2 00:05:07 Sure. So let's, let's talk really quick about white lining. Um, uh, and, and it really is your first step to the eight one, one process. It is, uh, excavators, white lining, or they can, and this is a CGA definition it's to Mark the proposed excavation site with either white paint flags or steaks or combination of those, um, and getting out there and doing that before you make the call to eight one, one, or submit a one call ticket, and it takes the guesswork out of where is the excavation site going to be. And so that, that is as the quick synopsis of what, what lining is. And, um, as far as the potholing and daylighting goes, um, it is once the, the proposed excavation site been white line, and once utility operator has gone out there and put pain or flags on the ground, um, you know, there is a tolerance zone that is added it's 18 inches on either side, uh, plus half the diameter or the underground utility, anything within that tolerance zone, no mechanized equipment can be used.
Speaker 2 00:06:14 So when we talk about potholing, we talk about getting in there, um, and potholing to expose or daylight the underground utility. And there'll be what potholing will tell you is it'll tell you the, the, uh, the horizontal or vertical, uh, location at the underground utility. Um, it's going to tell you what type of utility it is. It'll, it'll give you the depth of the utility. So once you've exposed it, uh, one of the things that we, we also make sure that we remind us elevators is go ahead and reapply that tolerance zone 18 inches and half diameter of the underground utility on either side. And then again, you want to make sure that you use hand tools within that tolerance zone area, but by exposing it, um, they, the excavator can actually see the underground utility. They know what they're doing, they know what they're working around. And so those are two things beyond just making the eight one, one call that's really important. And the excavation committee,
Speaker 1 00:07:08 Tina, I got a question along those lines also. So, so as a homeowner, you know, from the other side, right. Um, and just, you know, this is interesting to me, uh, as a homeowner, I want to put out, you know, I want to put a new spirit, you know, I'm, uh, uh, my home out back, like on the back of my property, obviously, you know, round the mill homeowner may not know terms like white lining, things like that. What are expectations, you know, for a homeowner, just, this is where I plan to put something, you know, you know what I'm saying? Like what, what, what, what can you expect on the user side when you're not in the industry?
Speaker 2 00:07:48 Well, one of the things that we have with it within Texas at one, one, one of the things that we have provided as a tool for homeowners is if you're a first time caller or a first, it's your first time to submit a one call ticket, there is a place on there to check, so that information can be emailed to you, that kind of breaks the whole process. Okay. And that makes things clear to homeowners a lot clearer to first time excavators, maybe with their mom and pop shops. And then, so that's something that we do provide to them that we do is to explain to them that, uh, utility, uh, underground utilities will be marked up to the property line, uh, and or the meter. Um, and of course, if you've got a utility easement, you've got utility operators that will Mark within that utility easement. And so those are, that's part of the awareness portion for homeowners that, you know, it's really hard to put that into a, a quick commercial. Um, but it is part of what we do deliver to them. And it is part of the information that we do have on our website
Speaker 1 00:08:53 Too. Awesome. Let me ask you a question about the website, cause you mentioned portal before portal before and in this day and age, I'm a telephone guy I'd like to pick up the call or the phone eight one, one call have a conversation with somebody after about 20 minutes. They say, Jim, we have to go. We don't know you, but, um, you know, is there, uh, electronic ways for, you mentioned for contractors, I'm sure know that they're set up with this as a commonplace everyday, but for the homeowner and they do the same type of thing electronically, are they mostly the call-in?
Speaker 2 00:09:32 Well, I mean, it's just really about 75% of the one calls and we do have 3 million, one call notifications that come through every year that are called approximately 15 million plus that are pushed out. Okay. So that gives you an idea of the volume, approximately 75% of the one call notifications that are submitted are submitted through the portal. And we've made it super easy for homeowners to go into the Texas eight one, one website. And there is a section on there to click for homeowners. And, um, so, so like I said, it makes it super easy as you guys still have the 25% like you, Jim, that would prefer to speak to someone. And I do get that. I get that often and that's okay. We have, we have fantastic, fantastic damage prevention agents that are ready to take the call and answer any questions. So either way, as long as you're making the call,
Speaker 1 00:10:24 Well, I have one quick follow-up question. Uh, when you talked to somebody, is it just during normal business hours, Monday through Friday, or is extended or what was it? Eight one one, man.
Speaker 2 00:10:35 So, um, Texas eight one one, the notification center is available to contractors, homeowners. It doesn't matter, uh, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a week, a year. And that includes any kind of holidays as far as taking the calls. Um, now there is going to be a couple of things that we need to remember when you're submitting a ticket that the timeframe, the waiting timeframe does not include Saturday, Sundays or legal holidays recognized holidays. So, you know, when you talk about, you know, submit a one call ticket and you've got to give the 48 working hours or two business days, if you are calling on a Friday, just remember your Saturday and Sunday, or if there happens to be a legal holiday that's going to affect when it will be time for you to get out there and start your work.
Speaker 1 00:11:23 Gotcha. We at UWM where, you know, we have provided online training for a long, long time. And, um, I know, I know Texas, I'm sorry, the damage prevention, the, you guys have a no cost damage prevention training that you offer online. Can you tell our viewers a little bit about that and how they may be able to utilize that?
Speaker 2 00:11:56 Sure. So we, as a team, the damage prevention team got together. We each selected a day of the week. And so there is training every single day of the week. Um, right now we have the, the calendar is set up through September. So if they were to get online, it's a one hour, sometimes one hour and 15 minute, depending on how many questions we get, Hey, we're fine with questions, but about an hour, hour and 10 minutes, 15 minutes, um, it is a damage prevention is really, um, geared towards the one call process. Um, it's geared towards, uh, damage damage prevention, damage investigation, um, what to do in case of a damage, uh, talks a little bit about, uh, chapter 18 and two 51, which are the one call laws that govern, uh, you know, one call in Texas. And so those are, like I said, they're free.
Speaker 2 00:12:49 They don't, I mean, they don't cost anything. We have them. Uh, normally we were training about 45 to 50 folks. Every single time we have a meeting and we also do the meeting in Espanol. So we do it in Spanish, I think two times a month, which is great because we do have a large, um, a large portion of the excavation that's taking place in Texas. Those subcontractors may be Lim, uh, limited English, proficiency or English as a second language, and don't want the, the, the language barrier to keep them from doing the right thing and to go home safely to their families and to make sure that those lines stay intact and the product keeps running through them. So.
Speaker 1 00:13:29 Amen. That's great. Um, I, Oh, go ahead, James. I'm sorry. Nope. I just going to ask Tina with everything going on, that training sounds really exciting and we've all embraced the whole virtual world. Do you have events coming up or most of your things right now, like online training until we get out of this, this period, so to speak.
Speaker 2 00:13:52 So as far as event face-to-face events, we don't have any face to face events that we're, we are actually doing. We actually are supporting in our East Texas chapter damage prevention chapter. We actually have a, uh, Texas oilfield angels event. They over in East, Texas are still, um, actively having events. They are social distancing, um, but they have a barbecue event that's coming up. And so we, we have provided, uh, arm bands for them, uh, with they are going to pass on the damage prevention information, you know, know, what's blow call before you dig just a quick synopsis of it. And so that's happening. But as far as us and our team goes, we're still having damage prevention, chapter meetings. They are virtual, of course. Um, I have them regionally. So all of our regions get together and we talk about maybe some things that are trending right now.
Speaker 2 00:14:43 What are some issues that you're having some challenges with? We're having, um, utility operator, round tables, we're having a locator round tables and we're having contractor locate, uh, contractor round tables, and we're getting some feedback and buy-in, and some suggestions from those industry stakeholders so that we can hopefully make some changes within the industry to help them do their job better for the lines to be located faster and to make sure everybody goes home safely. These webinars are just, I mean, those are just a portion. We have workshops that we're still doing. We're bringing in folks to talk about H two S we're having actually I have an individual, we'll be talking about the procedures, the proper procedures for potholing and daylighting. I mean, we talk about it. It's an arbitrary thing, but we actually have someone who is going to come in and talk about it, how to do it, and making sure that if you have a lengthy excavation site that you don't just want to have one test hole that you want to have several, because if you've worked anywhere around underground utilities, you know, those underground utilities, you're not running a straight line and they don't the same depth.
Speaker 2 00:15:49 So those are some of the things that we're doing. Um, we've got a, um, a rural outreach, uh, initiative that we're going to be doing with, uh, Texas extension, along with the wildfire and then a big homeowner outreach push. So there's lots of stuff going on right now. It is not stagnant for us at all.
Speaker 1 00:16:08 Cool. You now I'm going to go off script. You ready? You scared the last couple of episodes I've ended with this. And I want to ask you something similar in that we are surrounded. We've, we've been involved in Texas based events for a long time. Jim and I both. Uh, so, so we run across a lot of folks from Texas. Want a lot of people in the damage prevention world in general, you you've always been very passionate about what you do. And so my question is, do you love what you do?
Speaker 2 00:16:46 I absolutely love what I do. In fact, my kids, whenever the kids are asked, you know, so little Johnny, you know, what is your mom and dad do? And one, Oh, my mom's a doctor. You know, my mom's a teacher, my mom saves lives is what my kids say and proudly say it. So yes, I'm happy. My kids know I'm passionate. So, absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:17:10 Yeah, for sure. I wanted to know, I should ask that first.
Speaker 2 00:17:15 She should have told me you were going to ask it. I'm not going to come up with, you know, some be any better than what the truth is. So thank you.
Speaker 1 00:17:23 That was from the heart. That was great.
Speaker 2 00:17:26 Any final thoughts?
Speaker 1 00:17:34 I told Tina earlier in the pre the pre-game to this call that, um, the last event I was at actually was an event that, uh, Tina and her group put on with, with, uh, the ax people as well. And, um, uh, Tina actually introduced me. I'm on my last speaking engagement in the industry before. I mean, it was two weeks later that we went into quarantine. So, um, that seems like a million years ago. So I'm proud to have you on here. Glad to help you give, give a place to preach the gospel. So thank you, Tina. We want to thank you. We want to thank you for joining us today, Tina, again, everything you share with us is great information. I hope our listeners learned something today and just take away that one thing call before you day or send in a electronic message before you dig to the call center, get it, understand where you can and can't date.
Speaker 1 00:18:43 So thank you, Tina, for doing that. It was a pleasure. We can't wait to see you in person, get back to some events, but until then seeing you like, this is the next best thing you've brought a smile to this morning. I'll tell you that much. So our audience, please connect with Tina. Do that, um, follow the, you know, go to the website, you know, do all the right things, become informed, educate yourself, do all the good things and the most important thing. What do we always say? Stay safe, right? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Anyways. Want to thank everybody for watching today? Have a great day. Stay safe. God bless you. And God bless our industry. And until next time for coffee with Jim and James, we bid you farewell.
